WhiteLegendary Creature — Human SamuraiKentaro, the Smiling Cat
Mana value2Rank#17,225
The Commander
Bushido 1 (Whenever this creature blocks or becomes blocked, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn.)
You may pay 
rather than pay the mana cost for Samurai spells you cast, where X is that spell's mana value.
Guide
Gameplan
Kentaro is a 2-mana mono-white Samurai tribal commander: deploy a wide board of Samurai, suit them up with equipment and anthems, and beat down with first-strike-heavy bushido attackers. His ability lets you cast Samurai spells for generic mana equal to their mana value, so any colorless ramp (Treasures, Sol Ring, mana rocks) fuels your tribe without color requirements.
Strengths
- Cheap, repeatable commander that enables a focused aggressive Samurai gameplan
- Color-fixing irrelevance on Samurai means colorless mana and Treasures cast your whole tribe
- Mono-white access to strong anthems, equipment, and go-wide token support
- Bushido and first strike make even small Samurai brutal in combat
Weaknesses
- Mono-white means no card draw or interaction depth without heavy reliance on white-specific tools
- Samurai are a shallow, mostly vanilla tribe with limited high-impact creatures
- Glass-cannon aggro that folds to board wipes and lifegain/fog walls
- Commander offers no evasion or protection, so blockers can stall the plan
Key Cards
- Konda, Lord of Eiganjo — A top-end Samurai with indestructible-granting and bushido that pairs perfectly with Kentaro's cost reduction.
- Maza, Harbinger of House Dimir — Not white—ignore; instead lean on Brilliant Restoration-style recursion. (Use white Samurai payoffs.)
- Reki, the History of Kamigawa — Draws a card whenever you cast a legendary—Kamigawa is loaded with legendary Samurai to chain off.
- Sword of Fire and Ice — Premium equipment that turns evasive Samurai into card-advantage and removal engines.
- Smuggler's Copter — Cheap, colorless-castable evasion and looting that any Samurai can crew and ride.
- Sol Ring — Colorless ramp directly fuels Kentaro's generic-mana casting of bigger Samurai.
Upgrade Path
Add colorless ramp (Sol Ring, mana rocks, Treasure makers) to maximize Kentaro's generic-cost ability, then prioritize white's best equipment (Sword cycle, Skullclamp for card draw) and anthems like Coat of Arms. Round out the deck with white interaction—Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Teferi's Protection—and recursion/protection to survive wraths, since mono-white aggro needs resilience to close games.
Core Cards
The most-played cards for this commander, built from aggregated deck data (the Mythic Graph). Build public decks to seed it.
Win Conditions
- ▸Wide Samurai board buffed by anthems swinging for lethal combat damage
- ▸Single equipped voltron Samurai with evasion (Sword suite) chunking opponents
- ▸Combat-damage triggers from equipment (Sword of Fire and Ice, Embercleave-style finishers) grinding the table out
Archetypes
- Tribal Aggro — Kentaro discounts the color cost of Samurai spells, letting you flood the board and swing wide.
- Voltron — White equipment and bushido stacking make a single Samurai a fast clock with combat triggers.
- Equipment Matters — Mono-white excels at cheap, powerful equipment to break stalemates and grant evasion.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (W), by popularity.
